In relation to the images that you post and publish to Facebook:
Most people are fairly familiar with this type of information extraction. However, a significant amount of information can also be extracted from the actual visual information in the images (i.e. aside from any tags or meta data). The obvious ones are your ethnicity, age, and sex. However, did you know that it is possible to analyze your images to find out what skin products are best for you? Or, what hairstyle or makeup would look best for your given face type, color, and shape?
The images that you post to Facebook allow them to commercialize you, simple as that. They can provide their partner organizations with vital information so that they can insert an annoying banner advertisement above, to the right, to the left, over (all over) your images.
Are you okay with that? Essentially your photos have a monetary value assigned to them and it’s Facebook’s mission (unlike ours) to extract every single penny possible.
And if you thought you were safe on Instagram, well, you’re not because Facebook owns Instagram (many people still are not even aware of this relationship! We need to educate and inform them!). Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, said this explicitly on an earning’s call to investors:
Kevin [Systrom, Instagram Founder] has always been clear that we’re building Instagram to be a business. And that we expect that over time we’re going to generate a lot of profit from it … probably through advertising.
Really, really sad. What a loss. How gross is it going to get when you start scrolling through your Instagram feed to see a half-naked woman yelling at you that there are “HOT SINGLES READY TO MINGLE IN YOUR [Insert Zip Code Here]!”
Zuck goes on:
When the right time comes, we’ll think about doing advertising as well, and I think that’s going to be a really big opportunity.
Hopefully it’s an opportunity you won’t givethem. Join us, take back your image sharing rights (and pageviews), and join the revolution.
The Insomniac Libertarian 